Secrets And Hope {The Last Of Us Fanfiction}

XIII

The harsh winter had taken a firm grip of the ground almost refusing to let go. As the flakes continued to fall, Ellie trudged through the deep snow towards the barn. She quickly shut out the cold winds as she slid the block across the heavy door before turning towards the stables. She stood in complete silence aside from the odd snort or whinny coming from the horses. Taking a deep breath Ellie quickly got to work. Skipping out the stables and replacing it with clean straw before finally brushing and feeding the horses. She didn't find much pleasure in her chores but the constant movement kept her warm from the icy chills in the air. Making her way back outside, she followed the path to the paddocks, smiling to herself as the single brown stallion trotted towards the gate as he saw her approaching. Slipping the head collar over his head, she attached the lead rope and opened the gate to bring him in. As she tried leading him, the horse yanked back on the rope causing Ellie to fall backwards landing in the snow with a loud thud.

"Oh shit!"

The horse glanced down at Ellie as she sat with crossed arms sending the stallion an irritated glare. He snorted before letting out a long whinny, if Ellie didn't know any better he almost sounded as if he was laughing.

"Come on quit joking around. I gotta finish before Maria gets back."

Ellie jumped to her feet, patting the snow from her back and legs before grabbing the lead rope again. She reached up stroking the horse's nose then finally able to lead him back to the barn as she closed the door of his stable behind him.

"See... it's not so bad in here is it?"

Ellie laughed at the horse pacing in his stable before he finally stood happily eating hay from his hay-net. Shaking her head she quickly got back to her chores as she went to change the water trough. With trembling arms she heaved the water buckets outside to refill them, a frown appeared across her face when nothing happened after turning on the tap. Kicking the pipe she heard a loud ping as the tap coughed out small chunks of ice.

"Oh man! Damn thing's frozen!"

Ellie stood with folded arms as she drummed her fingers against her coat. Her mind racing with ideas of how she could thaw out the pipes only to come up with nothing. Letting out a defeated groan she decided to make her way further into town for help.

Despite the rough weather the town was buzzing with life. Some shoveling the snow from the paths to their houses, some busy at work cutting firewood and some even braving the weather to hunt for food as they made their way towards the gates with hunting rifles hanging from their shoulders. Ellie tried to shake the cold that pinched both the end of her nose and the tips of her fingers as they glowed a deep red. When she reached the middle of town, voices of panic and concern shouted over one another as a crowd of townspeople continued to get bigger. Keeping to the edge of the crowd Ellie spotted Joel and Nora sat just outside of them, silently observing the rapidly forming crowd that continued to pester Tommy and Maria.

"Hey what's going on?"

"Hey kiddo, couple of the town folk are gettin' restless with this damn snow."

"They heard supplies are runinn' low and now they're worried we won't have enough to go around."

Ellie took a seat in-between Joel and Nora as Tommy took a stand to silence the concerned crowd, reducing their voices to hushed whispers.

"Alright listen up! Now I know things ain't been easy... but I reckon we're passed the worst of it. Snows starting to thaw and temperature's startin' to rise. Spring is just around the corner and we've managed to last this long. Way I see it, least that's somethin' we can be proud of. We keep doin' what we're doin' and we'll see it through to spring...And it's true we're running outta supplies but we're finally at a point now where we're able to go scavenge for more but it's still a risk so if you gotta go, stay close. We're taking a group out tomorrow morning for another supply run, anyone that wants to join meet here tomorrow at eight o'clock sharp. Everyone else go home to your families and try to stay warm. We'll get there...we have too."